So without much of a pause, I pressed onwards from McNeads bridge for a few kilometres. When I spotted a sign for a bar and grocery shop at Killucan, I left the line for a few hundred metres to replenish my water supply. I got another 2 litres of water and replenished my water bladder from what I had. It was turning into quite a hot day and I reckoned I was going to need whatever water I could carry.

Immediately after Killucan I hit upon my first lock of the day and over the next 5 kilometres or so the route dropped through about 10 locks from the summit. I’ve taken pictures of most if not all of the locks but it gets a bit boring after a bit so I’ve not bothered uploading them all.

 

There were quite a few people about partaking in various canal-side activities.  I met a few local walkers, runners and the odd cyclist. The route in this part of the canal is particularly suited for cyclists with pretty much uninterrupted paving along the canal all the way from Mullingar.

I had done a deal with myself to have lunch at or around the half-way point but then I realised that I had managed to talk myself into doing the walk by persuading myself that it was about 4 kilometres shorter than the 44 km that the walk was planned at. So I left the 20 km behind with this harvesting operation being the only thing of note to see.

The day was getting so hot that I resolved to go for a quick swim when I got significantly past half-way. I wasn’t really feeling particularly hungry so I decided to leave lunch for a bit longer. So at 24km, I had a quick dip in the canal which was indeed very refreshing. It wasn’t as cold as I was expecting but it was certainly a relief from the heat of the day.

While I wait to dry off I had a bit of a rest and admired the various insect life buzzing about. There were fantastic dragonflies but they were too fast for my bridge camera to be able to nab a quick shot. So I satisfied myself  with a coupe of shots of this butterfly which was quite fabulous.

 

So resting aside,  I got my act together and kept myself moving. Every now and then I would come across a heron who would promptly take off and move elsewhere. This guy was on the other side so wasn’t too bothered about me

So from this point, it was another couple of kilometres into Hill of Down where there was a lovely little harbour and they were setting it all up for a bit of a festival. There was what looked like a nice pub with tables outside but again, I was loaded for the day and in any case it was a bit early for partaking. I reckon you could easily take on this section without too much in the line of supplies as there were a few spots to get food.

So I pushed on for another couple of kilometres until I came to a reasonable looking spot with a bench to have a bit of lunch.